100/100 -8-

“So what went wrong?”

“Nothing! I swear! The doll was made from the finest porcelain, fired in the tradition of the great alchemists, painted with the wishes of little girls, and the tears of the women they would become. The glass of her eyes were made from the sands of time. Her hair was threaded gold. The mechanisms within formed the essences of the tree of life, the jewels fixing them in place were iterations of chakras. She would have been a living automaton. A perfect daughter.”

“And the winding mechanism?”

“Grenade timer. Do you think that was the problem?”